Is staying faithful like a goal, like a path to success?

I wanted to share a note I found as I was again sorting through my many "piles" of papers.  It is on "grit," which is about the process of staying faithful to the end.

A couple definitions I copied from the FORBES video I watched, from Angela Duckworth (a psychologist), about who succeeds, are these ::

TALENT  x  EFFORT = SKILL

SKILL  x  EFFORT = ACHIEVEMENT

"Grit is the ability to persevere, to be resilient, passionate and hardworking."

Trying to imagine all the hardships we might face as the future becomes less godly and then the domain of the Antichrist is very hard.  I don't know how we are going to make it.  The prophecy that many will "fall away from the faith" seems like it is going to happen very easily... and is, really, happening now.  We listen to the news and are amazed at what some churches are doing.  How will we who have a strong faith be able to stand, especially if we are alone in our beliefs and alone in our lives.

I started the quest for saving as many Christians as possible when I discovered poverty, government assistance, homelessness, and more.  I knew others in the church would not know how to deal with it.  I could see there would be a lot of "shock" and chaos and fear and pain and hurt and loss.  There wouldn't be enough benevolence funding to really help anyone.  This was way back in the late 1970's and 1980's, and it continued through the 1990's and 2000's and 2010's and up to the present.  The problem has only gotten worse. 

There were things in the early years that I never would have considered.  There are even more unexpected changes now.

What would be the best path to our future as believers in GOD and Christ?

The answer to me is still the same, but the path has changed.  It has become more urgent.  We need the basics.  Food.  Shelter.  Work.  These can all be combined into making spaces for our protection.

Rural seems better, but there will be many in urban areas who will need these basic resources without the ability to farm and grow livestock.  They will need a different kind of organizing.  The main issue is preserving our resources and protecting our vulnerable.

Alternative energy options for power will be necessary, whether urban or rural.  No money means we have to have everything we need to survive.  I think we need to work on options for each dwelling.  Solar on our roofs and possibly our housing materials.  Water collection and power through our gutters.  Wind energy in small sizes, like old-time well fans or weathervanes, even the new small versions for roofs.  Wood for heat in small, tiny-house stoves or large cooking stoves.  Electric blankets that are low energy users.  Propane for cooking and heating.  

We see "Preppers" and think they are crazy, seeing disasters everywhere.  In truth, they are trying to find a way through what is ahead.

One of the best statements I heard from a prepper on YouTube was "It's better to be ten years early than one day late."  

The only way to live without money is to have these preparations already available.

We don't know what is ahead, or how it will affect us and those we love.  Our churches are not prepared to care for their own.  The government is not prepared to take care of anyone... it is living on a credit card (the debt) and will soon reach the stage of bankruptcy.  Then everyone who depends on the government for their money and their life will be left with nothing.  Who knows what will happen in our country or the world.

Martial law means we lose all our registered weapons.  Violence in our streets means we can't protect ourselves.  Our families are separated now, because of jobs and surviving life.  We will only have local resources to access.  Preserving what our people already have is just as important as creating food pantries and clothing closets.  There are so many things we could be doing right now but aren't.

Food.  Shelter.  Work.

We really need to make prepping our goal.  

Can we Save America?

I have been sorting through a lot of old papers.  I came across one set of notes about the political process and decided it would be good to share with you.

I didn't save the source information, or the date it was created, but I have a title :: Marginalize the Population.  It's labeled page 10 of my original note packet.  I think it might be a chapter title.

The quote I wrote first is quite difficult to deal with but I already know it is true.

70% of people have no way of influencing policy

This issue gets bigger and bigger every year.  Lobbyists influence what gets passed, contributions become the reason, and we only hear the lies that make it possible.  I write letters when I can.  Mostly I add a few comments to online posts.  I'm not one who makes phone calls because I don't feel I can create a record of my efforts.  Printed matter is my "voice of choice" because I can try to keep a record for my own purposes.

There's really no way to know if my letters actually reach anyone who needs to hear what I want to say.

A note added under my quote above says the lack of being able to influence our political processes "equals a public that is angry, frustrated, and hates institutions."  I see why we have all the unrest in our nation.

More notes about this state that activism moves in very self-destructive directions, like

• unfocused anger
• attacks on one another
• attacks on vulnerable targets
• corrosive of human relations

"And that's the point -- to make people hate and fear each other, and look out only for themselves, and don't do anything for anyone else."

It's hard to know what all my notes mean after a long period of time, but the things I saved from whatever I was taking notes on, and only the few pages I have left, are meaningful.  

I was not and still am not great about history details.  One note I have is referenced to ADAM SMITH.  I don't remember why he is important to us, or this record.  What I have written about him in my notes is his opinion of our future, that we will become "a society in which normal human instincts and emotions of sympathy, solidarity, and mutual support are driven out."

These are serious in any society.  They make us people who care.  The Bible tells us the love of many will grow cold in the end days.  It says people will become lovers of themselves.  It says cruelty will grow towards family members.  And more.  The things that make a society great will no longer exist.

We never think about how our world is becoming what GOD has warned us it will become.  I know I have had a very hard time seeing it, not wanting it to happen, and wondering how we will live through it until the Antichist fulfills what he is going to do.

I don't know how much we can do to stop the downfall of our world, but everything in history and life is done, for good or evil, when "people organize, struggle for their rights, and win."  Satan has goals, too.

At the end of my notes is a quote by Howard Zin about our ability to create what becomes history.  I hope we all remember it and do our best to make life better.

"What matters is the countless small deeds of unknown people who lay the basis for the significant events that enter history."

I am a fan of James Clear's ATOMIC HABITS.  The idea is that small changes add up.  We can change ourselves in small ways to become the person we want to be over time.  This is how good and evil work... small steps that lead to the future.

We have become less godly in small steps over time... all leading to what GOD has already told us would happen.  

We create our lives by our choices, small and great.

When all of our lives are added together, we create our world.

It was my hope to gather all the Christians together so we could become that power for good our world needs, and what we will need to help each other.  I still hope we have time to make that difference.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

https://work2gather.us

Think about your food supplies!

I recently signed up (again) for emails from Jeffery Smith's group, IRT, Institute for Responsible Technology.  You can sign up for them at the main webpage, under SUBSCRIBE.  They come into your email titled, Live Well Be Healthy (.com) but I didn't find the website when I tried to.

He also created the documentary "Genetic Roulette" -- which was an earlier documentary about Monsanto and GMO's (Genetically Modified Organisms).  It was one of the first DVDs I purchased on food issues.  

I found my way to a list of foods we don't realize have GMO ingredients.  On the main page, look under "LEARN" to find "SHOP HEALTHY."

I was surprised by a video I found at the main page for "Shop Healthy."  There is more than one video available so I don't know if it shows up first every time you reach the page.  It's on their YouTube channel as well.  It's called HOW TO SHOP HEALTHY.  It startled me to hear that organic farmers spray their fields with Round-Up right before harvesting, and wine growers spray between their rows, and both of these actions put the main chemical in Round-Up in these foods.  We don't know about it because no testing is done to show what is happening to our food supplies.  

Another page I found that is important for you to see is under the SECRET INGREDIENTS square on the Shop Healthy page.

Secret Ingredients - Institute for Responsible Technology

SECRET INGREDIENTS is also the name of one of his books, but the page has a list of foods to think about when you are shopping.  Many are ingredients in foods we buy and make and eat, but we wouldn't notice them as GMO foods.  Some are ::  cornstarch, baking powder, tofu, soy flour, milk powder.  There are many more.  

I have already realized any food with corn could be suspect.  It looks like all the sugar made from sugar beets is included.  I was under the impression that wheat, soy, and more grains we use are already GMO, but I haven't found a good list to share yet.

I can't afford to buy all organic and non-GMO foods.  I do the best I can with my shopping budget each week/month.  It is easier as a single person, but if I still had my family and was on a government budget, I would not be able to buy what I already stretch my budget to get in organic foods at the store or local farm foods at a Farmer's Market.

The primary motivation for all these issues is money, at some level - whether business, government (legislation or taxes), or other financial issues.  

We, those who buy these foods, thinking they are safe for us and those we love, are the ones who suffer most.

I don't know where all this will lead, or how long it will take to become public, but this is how it seems to go in all of history.  It's different now because of the End Times and the Antichrist and the move to create digital currency the government can control.  Those who are poor or vulnerable always suffer most.  What GMOs will create in our bodies and lives is still not known or connected.

I hope we can find our way to providing the food we need for ourselves.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

https://work2gather.us

Politics in America has changed too much!

I am sharing a speech I found on YouTube awhile back.  

It is one of Bobby Kennedy's speeches, but I don't know if he wrote his own speeches.  Whoever wrote this speech was an amazing person.  I keep listening to it and wonder what happened to our country.  When I am really in need of remembering what kind of world we need, I put it on repeat and listen to it until I need to go on to something else.  I think I had it on repeat for a couple days once.  It is so great to hear.

This is the channel and the speech I found.  I have seen others but I don't know if they are the same speech.  This is the one I have kept in my Liked videos as a back-up and have downloaded to my phone for listening to.

https://youtu.be/BeqY2oMiwx8

I hope you find it and listen to it more than once.

Our nation, and the world, is in trouble.  We don't have a lot of people who reflect this kind of world.  The Democrats are not like this anymore.  

We will never become this kind of nation again.

No matter what anyone tells us, Bible prophecy tells us different.  

I so wish we could be this kind of nation again.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

https://work2gather.us

Can America really survive a big disaster?

I have been saving some of the better statements I hear along the way.  I am trying to be able to provide quotes and their sources when I post, here or elsewhere.  I also want to share I am not the only one worried about our global economy - and that includes America.

I tend to focus on financial topics when I can, or survival needs without money.  One quote, which I might have already share somewhere, is about our faith in the stock markets.  Many are counting on their income from stocks and bonds to support them in their retirement years.  Charities have annuity relationships with their supporters.  These are very vulnerable funds, and you can't count on them.  They could disappear in a moment.

The quote I found worthy of saving is from a prepping channel on YouTube called City Prepping.  I believe it was posted on 25 April 2023 and was titled "The Fuse Has Now Been Lit."  My notes say the post was about the real estate bubble bursting, but this line was somewhere in the video.

"Markets take the stairs up

and the elevator down."

I interpret this to mean stocks go up in value slowly but they drop fast.  If you think it means something else, let me know in the comments.

I am not against owning stocks.  Stocks are a way businesses fund their life, growth, and future.  We need healthy businesses in our nation, in our investment options, in our income opportunities.  My issue is whether they are secure.  Can you PLAN on them for retirement?  No.  They are extra money, not your economic foundation.

The DEBT we are building as a nation puts us at risk of bankruptcy, individually and nationally.  That will create a very terrible domino fall in so many areas of our lives.  Adding to the national debt means inflation rises.  That means our money has less value to buy what we need.  Extras go away.  Affording our daily survival needs gets harder.  Inflation means all the money we worked so hard to save won't buy what we thought it would.  Everyone in the world begins to suffer at the same time.  There's no one who can help get us out of this struggle.

The government is like a big family with a LOT of kids.  Taxpayers provide its income, and then the government spends it.  The government also has a credit card, which we call the National Debt.  I can't share where I read this, but somewhere on my research paths I thought it said our taxes are eaten up by the INTEREST payments on the National Debt already.  If not all, most of the government's income is spent before it is even collected.

All the people who depend on the government for their jobs, their survival, their retirement benefits, will be left with nothing unless the government continues to support them.  It is my understanding that all Social Security payments are already a credit transaction, and other government benefits/jobs/military payments also end when the economy falters.

We look to the government for disaster recovery too.   Natural disasters, terrorism, civil unrest, and any other kind of disaster.  We think the government will always be there to pay the costs of recovery.  We are at a point now that the government doesn't really have the ability to pay for anything.

In any economic disaster, there are paths we pass through...

• People lose jobs.
• People use up whatever they have saved.
• They sell their investments, probably at a loss.
• People lose housing.
• People lose whatever they have bought on credit.
• People have to declare bankruptcy.

It's not a pretty thing to even think about.

So, how can all this be prevented?  I don't know if it can.  We have dug a hole so big we can't see the top of the pit or any way to get out of it.

The only thing I could think of was to get the DEBT down to zero.  We would be able to weather the storms of the future if we do.  It is our safety net as a nation.  

The only way I thought this might happen is to create a collectible coin and sell it to pay down the debt... and ONLY THE DEBT, which includes the financial needs of Social Security Retirement Funds.

Awhile back, I heard/read about the plan to make a Platnium coin.  It seemed like the ideal solution to our debt issues.  I figured we would need to make ONE TRILLION collectible coins and sell them for at least $50.00 each - so ordinary people could afford to purchase them.

I suggested packaging them as collectibles and giving each one a number so that there is a priority value for those who care about that.  It would also be a recordkeeping option.

Since it would not have a monetary value (as currency), it would not add to the debt.  And now that the government is heading toward digital currency for the future, it might be the last coin created by our government. 

If we can sell all one trillion of them, it would provide enough money to eliminate the debt, provide for Social Security, and allow a small amount for a RESERVE account for the future.

I expect the government will want to take all the money and use it for anything they want to use it for, but this would need to be stipulated as funds for the National Debt only.  I have no idea how that can be achieved at this time in our history.

Maybe you do.

We have to do something!!!  

Let me know how you would try to get this done...

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

Founder, Owner, Volunteer

Working Together Inc

https://work2gather.us

Persecution - what does it look like?

I discovered an old movie at YouTube yesterday.  It was about the Nazis taking over Denmark... when they thought they were safe.

It was a reminder how fast violence happens.

The Nazis had lists of where to find the Jews.  They prepared to invade on one day, a Jewish holiday, when they expected all the Jews to be home.  Rumors of the Nazis coming for the Jews had been a daily event so their invasion was not believed or expected by many... until it was clear they were moving into action.

It was a reminder that money is always a problem in oppression, and how sudden events mean you can lose everything, sometimes your life.

This 1970 movie was called THE ONLY WAY.  I watched it on a channel called "Goose."  

I keep wondering how modern technology will change the options for survival we will have when everything changes for us.

Years ago I discovered that all new cars were equipped with some kind of tracking device and that all new freeways (maybe more than freeways, I don't know) we built with the ability to track all those vehicles.  Now we have more advanced tracking devices, and the microchip in our bodies will be the ultimate government tracking option.  We may have BETA tracking in our cards with microchips... who knows!?!  

I have wondered if our evolving chip-based credit/banking system, and RFID technology, is the testing ground for what lies ahead.  It didn't seem like a problem as long as the chip was in the card, but who knows what else is attached to it.  If thieves can capture your card information through the air, who else is collecting it?

It seems smartphones are the next step in collecting information and tracking everything we do - say - record - and more.  I saw something about phones being programmed as a single financial option... starting in countries like Africa and India, if I remember that right.

I don't always take notes when I am listening to things, and a lot of my historical details have been lost in my own life struggles.  

I just don't know why GOD hasn't provided for Working Together.  We need so much to prepare to last as long as we can.  The movie I watched was about one small city in a very small country.  What will we do in our time?  

Maybe it will all be over in a very short time.

We may not need anything.

I find that so hard to deal with.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

https://work2gather.us 

This is from last year, but the details are the same.  I hope your community is preparing for what is ahead, not just for those who are dedicated to GOD and saved by CHRIST, but for our loved ones.

Continuing to think about our future as Christians

I watched an old movie on YouTube last night.  It was about a Jewish family separated by the Nazis and the war.  Half in America, half in Poland.  It was about the damage the war caused to them, individually and as a family.  The theme was how to heal from all that pain, from changing traditions, from memories that kept haunting them.

This movie didn't have all the blood and violence of war and detention camps.  It was sharing the pain of recovering, and the hurt that our pain causes others - especially within families.  This was many years of their lives coming to a single turning point. 

Finding lost loved ones, not knowing if those left behind before the war were alive or dead, dealing with the "what-ifs" about their past - what might have changed if they acted differently, these were the difficulties of recovery for this one Jewish family. 

It was another movie about how persecution affects the rest of our lives.  It made me thing again about what those who hate GOD will do to our lives... including death.

The name of the 1992 movie was "Miss Rose White," if you want to watch it yourselves.  The main star was Kyra Sedgwick, who played the part of Rose.

Hollywood always has a purpose in making movies.  I never thought about the subtleties under a movie's contents before I grew up and then realized the messages hidden in them.  Mostly about cultural change.  I wouldn't say the goals of Hollywood were good.  It seems to be Satan appearing as an angel of light most of the time... making evil look good, harmless, fun.  

In this movie, the cultural change was Miss Rose White.  She had changed her Jewish name to the title name in order to fit into the" modern" culture where she existed.  She was determined to have a career, not wed or have children.  To her family (father) she seemed to be fully Jewish.  Hiding the differences was the way she lived.

Bringing lost family into her private world created the battles of the movie, and also became the path to healing.

I suppose this is the formula for a movie, but the details are where Hollywood lives.  What the characters say.  What is seen on the walls behind the main characters.  The way they live.

I see all of this changing as each generation reaches moviedom.  Look at the internet today.  What does "the entertainment industry" decide is worth spending money on to get your attention?  

I don't want to continue with this.  It's depressing me.  I long for a more protected world.  I don't want to fight these battles every time I try to watch or read or listen to something.  How can we live in this world and not be entangled by it?  I don't know.  I keep trying to find my own answer.

When I get so caught up in the troubles we face, I begin to pray for GOD's help - for me, for my sons, for my extended family, for my fellow Christians and Jews.  I seek GOD so often it seems there will never be an answer.

People of Faith have always faced these moral issues.  We battle the best we can.  Our generation is at an unusual turning point in spiritual history.  How will we stand in faith against the powers that lead up to the Antichrist?  How will we stand in our faith when death is the only path?

I hope you are thinking about this, too.  That kind of faith doesn't just happen in a moment, we have to have it before the crisis hits.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

https://work2gather.us

Digital Currency and the Mark of the Beast

 This morning I found a couple emails about digital currency and our future.  One was from a survival group, the other was from a news source.  The message was the same -- digital currency means government control of our money.

It's frightening to even think this is happening.

Why does our government feel it has the right to decide what we can buy?!

I suppose the healthcare mandates gave it a new sense of power, or maybe desperation.  The end goal is to lower the costs of what the government pays for.  Total control means a lot of force on the free-market system.  

There isn't enough tax money to pay for everything some in the government want to establish.  We can only pay so much in taxes if we want to survive ourselves, and taxes are already too high for everyone.  I created this graphic awhile ago, but I hope to post it on social media a lot as this election cycle continues.

I have the idea we need to reform the government down to just ONE tax... a sales tax of 10% that is divided between the three government entities of federal, state, and county, plus 1% for our international obligations. 

I added that graphic to this post but it seems to only work in the position below the first one.  Someday I will learn how to make my posts look the way I want them to look.

I discovered, after creating my graphic, that we have an amendment about taxes.  A Paul Harvey video called FREEDOM TO CHAINS shares that there is no limit to the amount of taxes the government can claim... all the way to 100% is legally possible.  Did anyone know that when they created this amendment?  I suppose we just assumed the government would never do that.

Our societies have become less godly in the years since many of our laws were created.  It makes a difference.  

The focus on digital currency is just one step away from the MARK of the Beast.  Once digital currency is the law of the land, requiring the financial microchip into every body will create the biblical MARK and the eventual end to all Christians, who will oppose it.

I said long ago that most of these changes we object to come into power under the banner of "safety."  It's the threat of harm that becomes the political hammer and we (the people) have to submit to what our elected representatives choose for us.

Democracy has become a weapon against those who believe in America, in GOD, in the good that freedom creates, in moral foundations, in biblical values of Truth, Justice, Charity, Love, Faith, and Human Worth.  We are now more swiftly becoming an oppressed people.

It is hard to see this happening.

Prophecy is something that cannot be changed.  We just don't know how it will become reality.  How much longer do you think we have?

Working on the process...

 I have been working on how to catch up and keep goiong with my blogs and selling sites.  It is a big task for my life right now.  I am asking GOD to provide, again, and trying to find ways to help that prayer get answered.

Today I updated a bunch of tracking pages for my efforts.  I hope to get better results for what I continue to try to do: increase my income so I can build Working Together.

I suppose these aren't the things executives share with the world, but I always hoped to keep everything as transparent as I could so there wouldn't be any impressions Working Together was wasting the money GOD provides through various sources.

It's been a strange path to here.  I never thought my life would go in these directions.  BUT, I am committed to keep trying. 

With the Antichrist (the Mark of the Beast I mean) possibly getting here before I die, these days I have are more important than I knew.  I expected to be dead before anything really got here.  I can't guarantee the process of these real life changes we are going through... how they unfold is still a mystery for all of us.  I just see that digital currency becoming a global effort and the microchip already in human bodies seems really like the prophecies about buying and selling.  If we accept that microchip we forfeit heaven.  That's pretty big.

I am wondering how many Christians are aware of this.

I am sure I would have become more like all the other ministry leaders if I had the funds to build Working Together long ago.  I don't know what GOD's Plan is, I am just trying to find the way to what He put in my heart to do... because of the life I experienced.

Faith is sure hard when GOD doesn't do what you think He will.

Well, I just wanted to check in with this blog as I try to post more.

I hope some Christians are able to create resources for their families and communities.  If inflation hits hard, the price of everything will go very high.  I know I don't have the funds to survive it.  I am praying those who do will provide for the rest of us.  We can't take anything with us when we die, or when the Antichrist gets here.

Pray for all of us.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

work2gather.us

PS : I am still working to update the website for Working Together.

Just sharing some thoughts. Not sure if the photo will work after posting, but I hope so.  The one with the wave is one of my favorites.  No copies of this one yet... It was impossible to do again, and I don't know how to get it turned into prints YET!  :-)

Starting Again. What will GOD do with our needs?

It has been a long time since posting here.  I have been busy with seeking GOD for what to do.

I recently discovered that global governments are heading into digital currency to replace the money we currently use.  I suppose the costs and the problems we have with our debts are part of the issues, but it has occurred to me that once digital currency is attached to the microchip that has already been developed we will have something that looks like the MARK of the BEAST.  It has really hit me how little time we have left until the Antichrist rises to take over.

I'm not sure what will happen, but I will try to start posting what I discover and share my thoughts about it.

I wish I could have done more.

That was my intention in creating Working Together.

I discovered how hard poverty and homelessness will be.  I just wanted to help us survive better, longer, together.

GOD must have His own plan.

For now, this is all I can think to do.

Until next time,

Deborah Martin

https://work2gather.us

I am trying to update the website and have created a new PayPal link to replace the old one.  I have had lots of problems trying to get into my account.  The hosting company has changed several times and I also have computer problems.

I will get it updated as soon as I can.

WTI :: Catching up with you.

 I have been working on organizing all the things I want to get done, and posting to my Working Together BLOGS is one of them.  I can't promise how often, but there are so many thoughts I want to share about our faith and what is happening and how it relates to WT and all Christians.  I just can't get to the space in time and life to post them.

I will be sharing thoughts as often as I can.

My big issue is money.  This has been the main issue for years.  I am trying to increase my income at a personal level and to increase WT's income so it can stand on its own.  I continue to do that.  

At a personal level, please think about supporting my PATREON page ::  https://patreon.com/DebsRetirementPlan -- at any level.  I have a $1/month level now, plus a new $3/month PROJECT level.  My $5/month is my original General Support tier.  If you are a crafting kind of person, I have 20 spots for ART PRINTS and 10 spots for JEWELRY.

My income has been the only income for WT all these years.  I would like to find Christians to become part of its future.

I have been praying for months about how to make it easy for Christians to become part of the Working Together goal of building ONE Body of Christ and preparing for the future.  I don't have a final answer yet, but am thinking of a separate membership that is open to anyone that joins it... building the original plan to have an "AARP" for Christians.  We need some kind of group power that is global in reach.  It could be the first step for all of us.

I will let you know when I figure out if that is the way GOD wants to proceed... to the best of my knowledge.  Keep checking the main page --  http://work2gather.us  --  for changes and more information.  It will be updated soon... for the next MEMBERSHIP DRIVE.

The original AARP started at $5 a year.  If I had more financial resources to cover unexpected online issues, I would try that amount as an INTRO level special.  BUT I DON'T.  I have to decide what amount would be enough to cover the costs and leave enough for growth into next year.  It has always been a problem to start from zero.

I hope that GOD will move many of you to get involved in this effort to bring all the different people who claim Christ together and start becoming ONE Body of Christ.  We have a lot of needs globally, and the problems in the USA are making it even more difficult for ministries we support to continue.  Working Together can't solve all the problems we face, but the goal is to establish as many resources as we can, in each country.

The plan is to hire all the Christians we can so we will all have jobs, housing, food, and fellowship.  The transition to a world where we are persecuted is not easy.  We have to create spaces of refuge now.

I can't do it all alone.

I have been waiting for GOD to open the doors of money and Christians and places to build the future.  I hope you will be moved by GOD to join me.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

Owner/Founder

Working Together Inc

WTI :: Praying about the future of Working Together

Waiting for GOD to answer prayers is quite a long road for me... but it has to be done.  The battles of faith are getting harder, and I am getting very old (which means life might be shorter than I want it to be).  If it was fully funded as I always thought it would be, these issues wouldn't exist.  But this is where I am so I have to find GOD's path through today.

I have been praying about how to fund the start of WT still, again, in 2021.  If you saw my post at the homepage, you know that I am thinking of other options beyond membership.  I have tried A LOT of different paths over the years -- so I guess it's hard to keep starting over and revisit the efforts of the past.  I recently shared that I wanted WT to be the AARP for Christians, and that has brought up that possibility again.

AARP started with a small $5 fee, if I remember right.  I have been thinking we could do that to get a contact list going and start funding an office and employees to get that activity more organized.  I don't know if $5 would be enough in our time... costs are high these days.  WT has to pay for what it does so it can be as debt-free as possible.

Yearly membership needs to be one payment - in DECEMBER of every year, maybe a monthly option when it can be implemented.  This "AARP"-like effort would need to be a separate thing.  What it would offer you, as members, also needs to be figured out.

The biggest purpose of Working Together is to gather us together so we can start organizing resources to provide for each other's needs.  Being able to finance the start-up costs has always been a problem.  GOD did not bless my efforts.  I have never known why.  I have felt the spiritual battles in my life, so I just kept going forward the best I could.

I am still not sure when I will have the answer to this funding prayer.  I will let you know.  Day-to-day survival takes up too much of my time.  Please PRAY that GOD will provide for all of us.

In Christ,

Deb Martin

http://work2gather.us

WTI :: The December Drive for Membership is here

On November 30th I decided to spend next year focused on making WT better before I go for all the options I want to have in Working Together.  I limited Membership to one choice ::  a changed TRIAL MEMBERSHIP.

The Trial Membership this year is one year of monthly updates by email for US$25.00 - which is much like a subscription to a magazine.  It allows a monthly budget to cover the costs associated with making and sending it.

There are no other member benefits this year, but I hope to have them all ready to share next DECEMBER.  The Member Packet has always been my way of sharing other benefits that will be available through Working Together.  I hope to have some physical products to offer when we get them funded.

A regular membership costs more because it provides members with more.

So I hope you will sign up for the TRIAL MEMBERSHIP this year and encourage others to do the same.  This year, if funded, will build a foundation for what we can do in the future.

You can find the PayPal link on the homepage. 

There is also a link for more information on some of the programs Working Together is striving to create.  Each one is focused on an issue that will matter to Christians as time move closer to the Antichrist.

Let me know if you have any questions or comments.  The email address for Working Together is  office@work2gather.us --  you can also leave a post at the Facebook page for Working Together (https://facebook.com/WorkingTogetherInc).  There are more links on the homepage.

It will be great to start seeing people communicate with each other about the issues Christians are facing now and what is coming as we live through to the future.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

WTI :: December is not too far away... PRAY! I need to get things ready!

I keep seeing all the prep work I need to do on my lists, but when the dy is over, I haven't really finished what I wanted to.  This is such a pain.

This week I have been sorting through old paperwork and found a lot of my records for WT and the work I tried to do for it way back when.  This weekend I will have a separate pile of papers about Working Together to explore and remember and try to plan 2021 with.

I think about WT all the time.  Trying to decide on prices and benefits for Membership, how to advertise, what kind of graphics I should do for posting in December... and more.

I can only do what my current situation allows me to do.  It's not as much as I would like it to be, but we know GOD is aware of these details so I keep trusting there is a reason for my limitations.

As just one person with a very small income, I can't make endless offers via the internet... I can't pay for them without the fees I need to charge.  Finding the balance between fees and the benefits I would like to provide is my challenge.  In future years, with ongoing income, there will be more "flex" in the process, but right now (and in the past) there is NO room to experiment.

These are my challenges to build Working Together.  

They haven't changed in all these years of trying.

I hope to share more about what I end up with in future posts.  Keep checking in.

Let me know what kind of benefits you think are important for an online space for Christians.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

http://work2gather.us

and more...

PS - Don't forget to look at my BODY of Christ mug at my ETSY shop.  It's a great idea for you, and a great idea for gifting.   https://etsy.com/shop/work2gather 

WTI :: Thinking about 2021 today...

I was going through my notebooks and trying to organize them for 2021 again... today.  In the process, I decided that if I can get an email list figured out for Working Together, that would take the place of the TRIAL Membership.  So, I will be working on getting an email sign-up path posted on the WT webpage by DECEMBER's Annual Membership Drive.

The TRIAL MEMBERSHIP was a quarterly newsletter by email or print... which requires postage.  Maybe I should keep the print version for people who want it... I will have to think on that.  International postage from here is over a US dollar for just a letter size communication.  If we do 12 of them, it would have to cost at least $25 a year.  It is a great print option, though.  I'll let you know what I decide after I figure out the postage and process costs.

I'm working on prices for other things associated with Working Together, too.  The plan has always been to create products to help with the costs of each program, benevolence, and other parts of the global challenge to unite and protect the Christian communities we have.  Those in hiding will need special programs and products.  I don't know who they are, but there are already groups that serve them.  We just have to connect and get a plan going and FUND them. 

The election results will tell us a lot about our future activities.

I recently found an old PDF of my CORD (Christian Online Resource Directory) application.  If I can figure out the problems I have with my computer and making the digitals I need, I will be able to create an updated form for CORD and for MEMBERSHIP applications... Prayer Requests and Praise Reports... and maybe get the ESSAY 321 competition going soon.

This battle to grow Working Together seems like such a long and hard effort.  I wonder why.  I wonder why GOD hasn't intervened in the problems I have faced.  I wonder when He will.  

I looked at land on my computer again today.  I am signed up to receive emails from a few of the large land parcel real estate companies.  Sometimes I go to the highlighted sites and look at them.  

I discovered today that MONTANA own all the water rights in the state.  Oregon does that, too.  I find that objectionable.  I don't know yet if it is something we need to fight.  I do know the governments of our country are struggling to exist and pay all the obligations they have, so they are desperate for any kind of income they can raise.  Water access is soon on the horizon I assume.

The listing I looked at had an irrigation charge of almost $15K a year... for what looked like just one irrigation circle. I think most irrigation charges are for river water, but I don't know if this was the case for this property.

I look for the costs of large parcels because I assume there will be a lot of Christians wandering into the communities we need to build for them.  Water and Food are critical to survival.  Air is also essential, but we don't have much control over that.  Water is second on the list of survival needs, for humans, for plants, for animals, and for whatever else it is essential for... humidity?  Clean water is essential, but some places don't have that available.  To grow food, to grow animals for food and other resources, we need clean water.

This is one reason Oregon and Montana want to own the water in their states.

I have been trying to find out how much land is required to raise food animals, so I can figure that in deciding if a property is worth wanting.  I have a list somewhere... but I think someone has figured out an average acre size for cows, sheep, horses, goats, chickens, and other food options.  That doesn't include the dangers of wild predators like wolves and bears and mountain lions.

If GOD ever provided the money needed, all this will need to be decided before we can make a purchase to develop.

I remember reading somewhere that Old West kind of families needed about 200 acres for growing all the crops and providing for their work animals.

If you make all your bread and pancakes and biscuits and gravies and other foods needing flour, you need to grow enough grain for a year, have a machine to grind it up, make sure yo can safely store it, etc., until the next year's crop is harvested.

I have seen all the hay stored for winter for the land parcels I have been looking at.  If that is how much is saved for animals, how much will be needed for human beings?  It's a big challenge.

I don't like industrial farming because of their business practices, so finding a way for our future means organic and small scale... enough for each community by each community.  We will only have what we can create for ourselves.

It's not something most Christians seem to think about, especially in urban areas.  I have always known we need to, but haven't been able to reach the places I hoped I would already have reached by now.

Prophecy, History, GOD's Word, these all have meaning in our lives today.  We need to walk in Faith toward the future so we can last as long as we can in times of growing persecutions.  I generally just focus on the reality of a cash-less society... what does it mean to our lived to not be able to buy and sell, to get groceries, gas, clothes, etc.  It changes the way you see our future in this world we live in.

Working Together was my way of trying to keep others from suffering all the things I suffered through, and more.

I'm not young anymore.  I may not be here much longer, only GOD knows how long I will live.  I have been sharing all the things I can to try to reach those who can build for the future and fight to save Christians everywhere.

I still hope that Working Together will be that foundation, and provide the funds for the global process.  That depends on Christians.  It is all based on Membership Fees.  Sales of other products are for extra options, for developing new things, for outreach in other ways... and part of the yearly expenses we don't know about yet.

I hope this will be the year GOD provides.

To help me at a personal level, to prepare, to figure out how to get this going, becoming one of my ONE MILLION supporters at my Patreon page will help.  Just $5.  That's all I am asking.  It was hoped to be the funding I needed to accomplish so many things.

I hope you will be one of those people.

WT Membership.

Patreon support.

Or even my ETSY shop  -- I have a BODY OF CHRIST mug there.

Hope you will.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

work2gather.us

and more...

WTI :: Updated the homepage today

I am finally getting to my website for changes that need to be done.  With no activity to my knowledge, it seems pointless, but I am hoping GOD will deal with any issues I can't deal with... soon, I hope.

I need to work on the pages and details for the 2020 MEMBERSHIP DRIVE in DECEMBER.  I made new PDFs and printed off some copies to work on.  Once I have the new prices worked out, I can make my PayPal payment links.  Then it should be ready for December.

Waiting on GOD has been a long ordeal.  :-)  I know a lot better now how Abraham and Sarah felt waiting for their child.  You go through all kinds of thoughts... and wonder how much you should be trying to do yourself.

Sarah was desperate for her own child.  Taking the route that the rest of the world took seemed logical, from a human viewpoint.  It caused so many problems.  

I suspect Sarah thought the baby would happen really fast... then it didn't.  We always feel that GOD will answer us fast, too... but He doesn't.  Waiting is H-A-R-D.

I tried so many things to find start-up money when I was just starting.  Finally, I gave up and decided to wait until GOD provided for it.  I have felt the spiritual battles all these years, but there is nothing I can do about them.  All I can do is keep waiting for GOD to do something to provide for this business-ministry. 

So, maybe this will be the year.

I hope so.  I feel like I have one foot in the grave now.  I suppose that a GOD who can make a very old woman pregnant can also arrange for the funding of this ministry... and its next leadership.

I will let you know when the DRIVE details are figured out.

What do you think the Membership FEES should be?

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

work2gather.us

and more...

WT :: PREPPING for the Future : Elections, Membership, & Christianity

Here I am again... trying to get more posts done.  This month I am trying to do one post almost every day... 

The biggest focus for Working Together is the DECEMBER MEMBERSHIP DRIVE.  I need to review all my prices for the different types of memberships, the benefit structure, new PayPal links for collecting your payments, and how to reach the Christian world with my limited budget and resources.  

Every day I think this will be the day that GOD will provide for this work, but it isn't.  When GOD doesn't show up for our prayer requests, we tend to think He isn't listening, that He doesn't care, that we have something not figured out yet, that the Enemy is causing our problems. It makes us think more deeply about a lot of things in the Bible, in our life, in our spiritual focus.

I have had to do that since 1987 for Working Together (WT), but I was trying other paths for this effort before that.  Watching so much pain and hurt and misery continue while GOD wasn't providing resources for WT has been hard.

We know that there is no power greater than GOD, but we don't really understand the boundaries of Free Will in how He works in our world.  I decided it wasn't as simple as what I have heard preached about it.

The very difficult details of my life led me to seek GOD for answers.  In prayers I was divided between my great needs and His provisions for all the needs of Christians as things get worse and worse.  Working Together has one purpose  -- to create what the Body of Christ will need to survive for as long as possible - until the Antichrist gets here.  

We expect GOD to answer every need as soon as it appears.  He doesn't always do this.  Then we have to search for WHY.  I decided a lot of the pain and suffering we face in this world is connected to FREE WILL, which is GOD's promise to let us make our own choices.

The 2020 global medical shutdown has shown us how vulnerable we are to new kinds of attacks on our economy.  How fast our economy can change, and destroy everything in our daily lives.  We are struggling to deal with so many different kinds of problems, our political future is becoming a fork in the road... there is no easy answer for anything we are facing.

We call it socialism versus capitalism, but the differences are much bigger that we have ever thought they could be.  Socialism is when the "boss" is the government, Capitalism is about being able to build the kind of life you want to have through hard work and personal effort.  BOTH of these depend on the morality of the people involved.  

In our human world, there are big problems with both forms of government.  I know the world of government providing for your survival needs... I would choose the freedom to make your own future, which I have tried to do -- with little success.  I can hope for a better future as a free person in America, I would never have this hope in a restricted government-controlled existence.  I guess Welfare has taught me this.

What I have needed, and not been able to find, is what I have designed Working Together to provide for Christians.  

We need to see that Bible prophecies warn us about what is coming, and try to prepare for our needs before it gets here. 

This is why I have wondered where GOD was in providing for these needs.

This is what the Membership Drive is all about... creating resources NOW for the time they will be needed in the future.

I hope, when December gets here, that you will join Working Together.  If you can, please sign up for the Trial Membership now so there will be a start to the process, and better preparation for December.  Every membership helps.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

Serious issues and GOD

I can't believe there are only two days left... well, the rest of today and then tomorrow.  I think I still have about 20 places to post... :-)   not really.  The goal is just to post more this month, as many sites as I can, and keep going until I find a good way to post at all my spaces online.  So, I am doing that.



The events surrounding the unnecessary death of a Black Man by the police are devastating our nation.  Something should be done, but violence is not the way.  I think some people create the violence to steal, to enrich themselves, not because it has a meaning to the wrong that has been done.

I still remember the WATTS riots in Los Angeles.  I don't recall what it was over, but I do remember the death of Rodney King, also a travesty.  Cameras have changed the ability of law enforcement to commit these kinds of crimes, and that is good.  I wish they never even happened.

The ideals of life, the desire for a humanity that is kind and good and caring for each other, is the hope of every generation, and so impossible to find because we are human beings.  We make choices that come from our childhoods, from the wrong friends, from relationships at work, home, church, and more.  When we grow up, when we get on our own, changing is hard.  Getting away from what we knew and finding out that other people are not the way we thought they would be, is not something that happens easily.

When I hear the song so many herald as a message of what we need to become, IMAGINE by John Lennon, I hear a masked allusion to Communism, which never works out the way it was meant to be because of the humans involved.  Greed, Power, Ambition, Anger, Hatred, Force, and more, these become the driving need... every good ideal about sharing and equality goes away.

There have been other songs about the themes of change and goodness and sharing... I am trying to remember their words, but I am busy with Minneapolis and Portland and Los Angeles right now.  

In talking about how ideals get lost, I often talk about the difference between what the Bible says and what people do... church people... people who haven't really found the secrets of GOD and Christ yet.  It is the same problem as with Communism... the good gets lost in the humanity that it is linked to.  We try to do right, to be good, to have a better path, but we also fall down, fall away, fall into sin.  This is why Christ died for us. To make a way of recovery from out bad choices.

We are able to find GOD's forgiveness, but the effects of our choices never go away.

Today has been a long day at social media.  I found a quote post about RICH MULLINS on the effects of divorce on kids... I made a prayer post about that.

I found it at my PRAYERS page at Facebook...

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30 MAY 2020
apx 7:15 pm PST

I know we are in the middle of a terrible situation about being Black in America, but I came across a post with a quote by Rich Mullins on the effects of divorce on children and their ability to cope with life... it moved me to share more words about this... I am putting it here because we underestimate the serious long-term effects of family tragedies like divorce, remarriage, more divorce, remarriage....

I am also posting it with my graphic about choices... which was posted with my original effort...

======================

This is why divorce is bad...
Kids from a divorce get lost in the future choices of their parents, abandoned for the new family, handicapped in ways they don't understand until they are deep into adulthood, if they understand them at all.

The loss of the nuclear family has damaged the world, but we have made it a "right" to be freed of our lifetime commitments.

I always say we take our problems with us, to the next relationship... we just start the process of pain and wanting things to be different all over again.

This post was too long for Twitter... I ended up making my own share of it... I wonder how to make it read by more people, especially young people who haven't felt the pain yet.

=======================
Rich Mullins Quote of the Week
2 hrs ·

"One of the very interesting things about divorce is, I was working with a group of young people - there were four of them - and two of them came from split homes, and two of them came from parents that had stayed together and that had honored their commitments..." "The two people, who grew up in an environment where they came to realize that love is not conditional, that someone loves you not because you're worthy of their love, or not because you're cool enough to love; somebody loves you, because it is in them to love - that they are able to accept you, and are able to support you even when you're not doing your, what they think is your best. They were able to make the mistakes, laugh and go on; and finally get things right. The two people that came from a split home, I think since that time - 'cause I've stayed kind of in touch with all of them, and they've worked through some of those insecurities, and they've worked through some of those problems, but it was much harder for them. So I think there's a reason why we were created to be monogamous." -- R. Mullins [1992 Fire by Nite Interview by Blaine Bartel]

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Building a Christian Community is like trying to create a separate BODY OF CHRIST.  We are all different.  GOD created us for individual "jobs" in the Kingdom.  Our differences help us to see problems with different solutions.  If we can just find the way to WORK TOGETHER it will benefit all of us.

Building FAMILIES is probably just as hard... I guess it depends on what your foundations are.

Building FRIENDSHIPS, working with people on a job, Customers, people you need something from... it is all about... what?  I don't know a good word to bring all those things into one definition.

I haven't found the answers in my own life, but I keep looking.  I guess my relationship with GOD and Christ, trying to know the Voice of the Holy Spirit in the life I have, are the main experience I have with TRUST.

I think everyone in our world is fighting a battle we don't see... the hurts of their lives, the problems they face.  I hate to admit it, but even those police officers were fighting battles in their hearts and minds before this senseless event happened.  

I just hate to be aware of all the wrongs in the world.  It is sometimes too much for me.  All this information makes our lives a constant turmoil, gives us reasons to fear, turns goodness in our daily life into pain.

I have been sharing the graphic below with a lot of my posts on how our choices affect our lives and others.  I am very glad I made it, and have been thinking deep thoughts ever since.

I hope it will make you think about your choices more, too.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

work2gather.us

and more

21 MAY Update - working on monthly goals

Hi, again... I was checking links and realized how long it has been since I posted here... So sorry.  I am working on posting more entries at my blogs, my Patreon tiers, and on social media... wherever I have a place to share...  it's part of my plan to catch up with things and make a better plan for the rest of the year.

This is my CHALLENGE YEAR!  :-)  
( https://patreon.com/DebsRetirementPlan )  
I am trying to find ONE MILLION people willing to share $5 with me.  You can sign up with my Patreon Challenge Tier for $5 (USD), then cancel before the next month's autobilling… OR... you can sign up and stay with my page to watch how things go.

In my search for ways to gather this funding, I came across  paypal.me/work2gather  as an option to donate $5 without the problem of signing up for PATREON.  Just go to that link and you can help me reach this goal.

PayPal also allows you to send an email from your own PayPal account as a payment method. I am learning more about this option.

Any PayPal payment option requires you to have your own account. The sign-up process is not difficult, and most people who purchase online are already familiar with PayPal.

The best option for me is you becoming a monthly supporter... $5 a month.


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I guess you can donate to Working Together as well... my account there is   paypal.com/workingtogetherinc  -- NO tax receipts are available, just long prayed for gratitude and a deeply-felt thank you for helping me get WT going.

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Patreon is my effort to raise funds for my own needs and to work on some of WT's programs.  Membership is in December, but yo can still do TRIAL Memberships and LIFETIME Memberships.

This is a big year for me.
I am doing what I can, and praying that GOD will finally intervene on my behalf.
There is a lot of work to do.



On the way, I am trying to update and  build up  the WT webpage.
I am working toward making printable descriptions of each program to make the whole concept more understandable.
I am learning video and audio, going to work on creating a presentation for my Patreon page and then work on one for WT...
It's a slow process for me because of financial limitations.
There are other issues GOD needs to deal with as well.

Lots of changes this year, with monthly goals to overcome all the needs I face for WT.


Keep in touch...
I will be trying to post at least once a month.

In Christ,
Deborah Martin
work2gather.us
and more...